2012 - the end of the world according to some as that's when the Malayan calendar ends. Me, I look at it as they either ran out of charcoal or whatever they used or, as someone else said, they could have been abducted by a space monkey!

Oh but the Euro is going to implode - really? I use the pound - doesn't bother me! Other countries that use the Euro can go back to using their previous currency - Greece may well have a hard time of it for a while but, the bright side? Back in charge of themselves and not dictated to by the Brussels gravy train - who still haven't had a set of accounts signed off by the auditors in the years it has been in existence!

For the doom and gloom group in the UK - if the Euro implodes it will be bad for our business, all our customers come from there. Well, I would personally see it as a big opportunity - there's a lot of world out there that you could be doing business with - America, China, Brazil and not just Europe. Open your mind, think out of the box and stop being so pessimistic! With the wonders of the internet and things like online conferences, online conference phone calls, distance is no longer an object. Stop limiting yourselves.

For me, I think 2012 has a lovely ring to it, have no idea why but, have just a damn good feeling. And, that's what you have to maintain throughout life - an optimistic outlook. If you think negatively - negative things happen. If you think optimistically when you hit a great big wall - you will see a way around it instead of chipping and chipping and chipping away at it and, getting nowhere.

Goals:

Set your goals for 2012. Make some realistic ones and make some goals that you think are completely impossible and the steps you will have to take to reach them. Reach a realistic one, tick it off the list - you feel great, gives you a fabulous feeling of accomplishing something - even if it's just making sure you clean the bathroom once a week!

Now, for the harder ones! If you are wanting to start off your own business, no matter what it is, cut it down into smaller steps. So, your first step could be building a website, but you have no idea where to start. Buy a book (I've written one - click here!) (that would be a step towards a step so to speak!) but, you have taken that step.

You aren't going to get anywhere just thinking about it, write it all down and, then make it into simple steps. Just take that one step on your list and, you are closer to what you want to be doing. Baby steps!

I bought this book for my other half this Christmas as, he is always so negative, has no interest in the Law of Attraction, thinking positive and making goals like me, he thinks it is all poppycock and that I've just been lucky.

Needless to say, he hasn't read it - but I did. I think it is fabulous. I would highly recommend it. It has some concepts of the Law of Attraction in it but there are various sections on how to make yourself feel good. I've used one of them. You think of something, somewhere, or a person when you felt absolutely fantastic and squeeze your thumb and middle finger of each hand together. You do this every day and then whenever you are feeling a bit down, stressed, someone's bringing you down, you squeeze your thumb and middle finger of each hand together and it immediately brings back those fabulous fantastic feelings, no matter what is going on around you!

This book is fabulous and, I would highly recommend it. Some of it I was doing anyway - especially the setting goals section. How are you going to achieve anything if you haven't set goals? If you don't set goals, then you have no direction and, you are just bumbling along life's path instead of it following the path that you want.

Onwards and upwards and wishing you good health, happiness and success for 2012.

It's been a long time since I have posted anything on my blog but, it has been a hectic couple of months for Typing Solutions and, life in general!

I have had new windows fitted, the bathroom is being gutted and replaced, hormonal one has had a trip to Spain, has 10 days in Germany and a week in New York coming up and, I am trying to paint the dining room which, with a fur dropping Alaskan Malamute in residence is no mean feat!

The point of this post is SELF-DEFEATING THOUGHTS AND NEGATIVITY.

They are a killer to what you want to have. They will prevent you from accomplishing anything that you want in your life and, you've got to stop them now.....

You know the kind of thought that I mean, the self-limiting, I can't do or nothing will change type of thoughts.

Take a friend of mine who was made redundant from the Finance Industry. He hit rock bottom (understandable but, it doesn't help...things only get worse).

I went to see him and I took him a copy of my Law of Attraction Book, a copy of my Create a High Ranking website and a couple of bottles of Pinot Grigio.

After he had sunk one bottle and, was a little more receptive, I explained to him that he could look at the situation that he was in, in two ways.

The self-defeating one of, I've lost my job, I have no money, I can't pay the mortgage, I am going to lose my house - and, thinking those thoughts means you're attracting that OR

Think of it as an opportunity. Set up your own business, you're damn good at what you do, you have contacts, you've got my book to create a successful website - you could have a much better life than you had before. You can earn more money, you are your own boss, nobody telling you what to do, no office politics - a much better way of life is there, if you grasp the opportunity and think positively about the way your life can be.

And how is he doing now? Absolutely fabulous. His business is doing well and, I have never seen him looking so happy.

To read more about the law of attraction and how you make it work for you and have the life you want click here

To read about why any business needs a high ranking website click here

There is one song for me that captures the spirit of, you have just one go around the board on the Game of Life and, it's up to you to make it count and make it the life that you want. Play it full blast, sing it loud and stop with those negative, self-defeating thoughts and go for the life that you want. It is your life and you want to live it now.

This is a blog completely off topic, which has been started by the horrific actions of people, mostly the young, our future, in the streets of Britain and, some absolutely unbelievable sexual abuse directed at my mother on Facebook as the young, 15 year old, Grammar School educated young man "was bored".

Now, I am a single mother, which apparently means that my son is more likely to become delinquent. I disagree as, I hold dear, morals, courage, respect and, the fact that what you want for in this life, you work for.

Concerning the riots, my son had put on his facebook page that, "some people are so stupid", he could see the wrong that was being done but, not to the extent that I could, i.e. the fact that people's livelihoods, communities and homes were being destroyed and the repercussions for these people in their lives who, have worked hard for what they have and, their livelihoods were being destroyed by those who are completely ignorant.

I do not hold with the, they have no jobs, they have no education, they are showing their disgust with the system. If that's the case, demonstrate peacefully outside Parliament and not loot your corner shop. But, I do go with, they are taught respect, morals, the fact that you work hard for what you want - and unfortunately, these children are not. When, for example, a dental nurse leaves her young child at home to go and loot Tescos - where are the morals there? When a young man, a visitor to this country who has been attacked is helped to his feet, is then mugged? This I thought that I was instilling morals, decency, the difference between right and wrong in my son, until, two days later this happened.

My son's grandmother engaged in a conversation that he was having with his friends on facebook (nothing to do with the riots) and, the sexual abuse directed towards her by one of my son's friends (15 years old), who I have known since he was 4 years old was horrific. I had no idea until I scanned my son's Facebook page the following morning, being one of his "friends".

When the hormonal one eventually surfaced the next morning, I read him the riot act. Why had he not deleted the posts? Why had he not read his friend the riot act over speaking to his grandmother in this way?

My son, smirked and said he wasn't being serious, I didn't do it, I couldn't delete them as, you told me it was time for bed.

The posts were deleted and, my message to the young man was as follows:"Alex, have a little respect for your elders. After the events of the last few days of the youth of this country behaving in such an abominable manner, showing no respect for people, their communities and their livelihoods, whilst real men are out in Afghanistan putting their lives on the line I would have thought that you would know better. You are an educated young man, from a loving home and want for nothing. I am really disappointed in you".

Now, my son knows the difference between right and wrong but, the fact that he smirked enraged me. How dare he think that a 15 year old talking to a woman in such a degrading, sexual, offensive manner was a smirking matter.

And, for me, that's where this world is going wrong. Now, I know that my son would not have put that kind of thing Facebook but, the fact that his friend did it because he was "bored" and, the fact that my son had not read him the riot act that he had spoken to his grandmother in such a degrading way, filled me with complete and utter anger and, disappointment. Okay, he said to him "Do you know that's my nan" but, for me that was not good enough.

I asked my son, if you were on a crowded bus, would you give your seat up to a woman? The answer, if she was old or pregnant. Okay, I may now have suffragettes rolling in their graves but....... No, you would at least ask a woman, irrelevant of her age, if she wanted your seat.

When I told my 15 year old son that, his Great Grandfather, who luckily for us is still alive and, more real men like him, would open a door for a woman, would pull out a chair for a woman, he replied with, "That's old fashioned". I was speechless. And that is the problem with the internet, TV, DVDS, parents (including me). Call me old fashioned, I don't care. We are destroying our future, by letting our children think that it is okay to degrade women and, have no respect for our fellow man.

"That's old fashioned". And, what is the problem with that? Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to put women's rights back 100 years. Especially me, I am mother and father to my son and, run my own business. I agree that we should have equal pay, I agree that we should have the vote but, what happened to chivalry and respect to the fairer sex or, your fellow man?

I could not go on the front line and fight in a war - some women can, and I have the utmost respect for them. But, wouldn't they be delighted if they got on a crowded bus and a young man of 15 years old, stood up and offered them their seat? Why should they take offence? At the manners, shown by the young man or, are they going to take umbrage and say, "I'm a woman, I'm as good as you, I can stand"?

For goodness sake, I'm all for evolution, for the unbelievable forward motion into medical science that means that we aren't dying at the age of 40, that we can have heart transplants, kidney transplants and, have our lives extended. That women can fight on the front line, be policewomen, fire women, plumbers, roofers, etc. But, let's have a backward step to, so called, old fashioned values of respect for your fellow man, treat women as women and not sex objects, treat people with compassion, kindness and, if you want something in this world, you gain qualifications, you work for it. YOU DO NOT STEAL IT FROM SOMEONE ELSE and, that you treat people with respect.

Rant over.

Please teach your child so called "old fashioned values" of respect, morals, courage, decency and to work hard and, to treat their fellow man and woman with respect.

A lot of people when they are reading about the Law of Attraction on this site are flummoxed by the "vibrating at a high level". This means, when you feel good you are vibrating at a high level. When you are feeling negative, low and down in the dumps, you are vibrating at a very low level.

The cosmos picks up, not your thoughts, but your vibrations. Therefore, if you are feeling negative and down, that's what you are vibrating and, that is what you get more of.

If you are thinking and feeling good thoughts, the cosmos picks up the high good vibrations and you get more of the same.

Easier said than done though you might be thinking. Actually, no, when you read this report here, you can see how easy it is to turn your negative thoughts to positive ones and, therefore, vibrate at a higher level and attract more good stuff into your life.

Think about all the small things in life that make you feel good, like popping the foil on a new jar of coffee, your child giving you a handmade Mother's Day Card, the early morning sunshine coming through your kitchen window. All these little things made you feel good, no matter what is going on in your life, and therefore you are vibrating at a high level and attracting more of the good things.

Think about your favourite songs, you know the ones that you have dancing around the kitchen, singing out of tune but very loudly. They make you feel good (maybe not your neighbours) but, they make you feel good.

My favourite song, that I find completely inspirational, keeps me on track and is basically is a song about keeping the faith in your dreams and the journey to get there is "The Climb" by Miley Cryus. Try it, I promise it will keep your dreams alive and, know that you will get to your goals, no matter how the land lies at the moment. Sing it loud and sing it proud!

I am coming across more and more in Forums now the similar question. "Please help. I have set up as a Virtual Assistant/selling a product and am not getting any clients/making any sales". When I ask what their website address is so that I can take a look and make recommendations to improve it, the answer now 9 times out of 10 is. "I don't have a website, I have a Facebook page".

Useless, absolutely useless.

Facebook is primarily used for people to socialise on - not to find products or services. Yes, people do recommend sites or pages but, only amongst their friends - no use to a business wanting to promote their service or products is it.

I know that Social Media is now the big "in thing" and, a lot of businesses/services do have a Facebook page but, AND THIS IS A BIG BUT, they have a website as well. Facebook is used primarily to update people not to advertise a business/service and, is only useful if EXISTING customers have liked or subscribed to the page.

Think about it, you want your garden landscaping - where do you go to find a company - Facebook? No, didn't think so. So, why do people make the big mistake of only having a Facebook page for their products or services.

Neither of my two business, either Typing Solutions or, Typing from Home have a Facebook page. To have a Facebook page you need to be updating regularly with new promotions, etc, and have a lot of people subscribed to it.

I have a Facebook "recommend" button on the Typing from Home Website and, that is slightly different. If a satisfied visitor likes the site and what they have read, they can hit the Facebook recommend button. This would then show up on their Facebook page as, "So and so recommends Typing from Home" with a nice little picture of my book and a link TO THIS SITE not some bland Facebook page.

Personally, Facebook for me is where I go to see what my friends are up to not to advertise my Typing Service or, to sell any of my books.

So, I will say again, if your business is languishing, you are not making any sales, obtaining any clients and you don't have a website, make one now. Not just that, ensure your website is well optimised and will be ranked highly in all the search engines. Just like this site which is No 1 one Google UK and Google.com.

If you already have a website and, it is not performing well, it will be because you do not have the right pages and, it is not optimised correctly.

The book "Create a high ranking website - the Foolproof way" details step by step how you create a high ranking website, easily and simply. It is written in non-technical language and contains information on domain names, page titles, meta tags, website builders and, all the behind the scenes work required to make a website a high ranking, high performing website that will be attracting the sales and clients that you need.

As the title suggests, computers, when you are working online, can completely screw up your business!

When working from home online as a Virtual Assistant or, running your own typing service always have an additional separate hard drive, memory stick and, mostly, importantly anti-virus software.

Can you imagine if you turned on your computer one day and your hard drive was completely blank, everything gone.

Can you imagine if you have to phone your clients asking for copies of their templates - that's if you still have their telephone number and, it wasn't just stored on the computer!

Or, having to redo all the work you did the night before that you hadn't sent to the client.

At the end of every day ALWAYS back up your work onto the separate hard drive and, as an added precaution, always keep your clients' templates on a memory stick as well.

So, just in case your computer goes kaput you can switch on your laptop, insert your memory stick, upload the templates and, it's business as usual whilst you are charged a fortune by some bod to repair your main computer!

Back to typing from home - home pageTwo days ago I was contacted by a young lady who asked me if an advertisement was legitimate. I thought she had come from one of the sites where I regularly contribute and wanted my advice, but no, it turned out that she had answered an advertisement on Gum Tree, advertising a data entry position from home.

When she replied to this advert, they asked her for a scanned copy of her driving licence or passport. The young lady concerned asked what the company name was and, the answer they gave was, my company's name, Typing Solutions!!!!!!! although the email was from suluwork@gmail.com and not, Typing Solutions' email.

She then looked up Typing Solutions on the internet, saw that we are a highly respected company and then emailed a copy of her driving licence - immediately laying herself open to identity fraud.

The full details of the emails and the scam can be found here at Netmums where, I am a regular contributor and, where people have added the scams that they have come across.

The Police were contacted, as was Gumtree and, I must say that Gumtree were very quick to take this advert down but, that is the one that we know of and, there are probably hundreds more on that site and others.

I also placed a large notice on our Vacancies web page at Typing Solutions to warn other possible potential victims of this scam that, we were not in any way associated with these adverts and, we only ever advertise vacancies through our website and, stating that you should never ever send money or your ID to anyone.

I will say again, when looking for typing from home work, never, ever, ever send money or personal identification to anyone in response to an advert. They only want your details or your money to defraud you.

Please take heed from this and, do not make the same mistake that this poor woman did who, then had to contact the Police, the DVLA and her bank. Luckily she contacted me as, you will see from Mumsnet, what they were asking her to send next!

There are thousands of adverts like these on the internet all preying on people who are desperate to be working from home typing.

If you are a virtual assistant working from home or, if your run your own typing from home service you may find that clients ask you if you can perform or undertake some more responsibilities for them.

Sometimes these may be well beyond your scope and you wouldn't know where to start but, you don't say NO!

Tell your client that you are, at present, unable to undertake this kind of service, that you will be adding it to your services in the near future but, that you will be more than happy to ask a colleague of yours and discuss the client's requirements with them.

What colleague? If you have followed the instructions in my typing from home book you will know where to find someone who will no doubt be able to undertake these tasks for you and keep your client happy as, you will have helped them save time and money by finding someone for them.

Speak to the colleague, find out how much they would charge and, that they can provide you with their experiences and clients who they have carried out similar type of work for.

Then, go back to your client with the details and, if you wish, charge slightly more than quoted and, you can make money as well!

As an aside, why not then research the service that you felt unable to undertake yourself and find as many educational resources as possible to teach yourself how to perform that task.

Then, the next time someone asks you for something similar you have a choice, you can either say yes, do the work from home and keep the total billed or, you can subcontract it out at a reduced rate and still earn some money for your working from home service

When working from home with a typing from home service there really should not be a need for clients to visit your home as all work should be able to be done online or any queries discussed on the telephone.

I do know however that there are clients who wish to meet the service provider. In this instance you should not let prospective clients visit you at home unless you have the right insurance in place. In this day and age of the postman suing if he trips over your cat(!) it is an absolutely necessity.

As this is an additional expense, which although tax deductible, is a headache you could really do without, it would make sense if a client is insistent on meeting you that, you suggest you make an appointment to see them in their office and discuss any matters at their place of business.

When working from home typing, do not make unprofessional mistakes. I am working from home typing with my own typing from home service and thought today I had better write something about how you approach prospective new clients if you perhaps send out an email about your typing from home services.

I have umpteen dreadful emails to Typing Solutions from people wanting to be working from home typing, for example:

Hi, I type from home and want more work"

For goodness sake, would you even bother to reply. I don't. No wonder they are looking for work for their typing from home service and are not being successful working from home typing - they are hardly being professional.

When approaching prospective clients advertising your typing from home service or virtual assistant services, ensure that you entitle your message engagingly and relevantly.